Twisted Revenge
by Kaity-Misty
Summary: After Espio and Sonic are kidnapped by a mysterious villain named Mince Marvelo, Kaity the Chameleon makes it her mission to bring the two out of Mince's madhouse safely an bring the villain to justice. But is there more to this Mince character than just evil and madness? Rated T just in case :3 Fc-based story. Read at your own risk.
1. The Beginning

**Hi all! :D This is Kaity the Chameleon.  
My friend, Misty the Hedgehog, and I started this story a long time ago because of a contest entry, and it's spawned all sorts of insanity :D  
But a quick warning: This is an FC-based story, so if you don't like those, there's a back button in the upper left corner of your screen. :3  
All offical characters (C)-SEGA  
Other characters who will be showing up randomly as the story goes on (C)- their respective owner (Me or Mist. You can check our profile page if you really want to know who they belong to )**

_Vector is **not** gonna like this, but I have to try, for their sake._

She kept her back in check to assure herself she was not being followed, and kept check above her of anyone that was devious enough to watch her in the sky or on the rooftops. This city on its own was known for, by far, the strangest occurrences, and it only enhanced that feature with Sonic and Espio suddenly going missing. No evidence of when they were taken, how they were taken, and if they were even still alive. Her only direction was towards the suburbs, where she was directed to a old asylum. The ones who directed her were the law there, from what she understood, and were the only ones that knew of one possible subject, though said to have vanished from existence for several years. Mince was not an enemy to take lightly; at all.

The stories told of him becoming a monster, taking innocent lives to his pleasing, and tortured them by making them into monsters. A mad scientist is from she gathered, but she still felt there was more to this story than what was given to her. Even as they insisted on being of assistance to her, she flatly declined, knowing the old asylum was home to many murder cases. She was a detective after all, she knew what to look for, and for being a ninja in training, she knew how to keep herself out of the obituary.

The only thing that made her spine chill painfully was the fresh blood that had dribbled across the walkway; it had not even coagulated. She stopped and looked to the building, fresh blood meant that someone was currently inside; unaware they are being followed. She kept her steps away from the live evidence and proceeded to crack the door open, making herself scarce to the naked eye, just in case. When she peered in, the blood went in different directions, even on the walls, and ceiling. Her only clue of entry was the splats near a ventilation opening, and was still dripping.

Some cocked gears set an alarm off, grinding sliding doors to close the panel above, seeing this might be her only chance to find answers, she threw the door open and made a leap into the secret passage, her tail just slipping in as the passage closed, leaving her with a line of red neon along the top portion of the condensed space. It was enough light to allow her to see what was a few feet head, but only a few feet, while crawling, she could feel her gloves and pants dampen up, the blood soaking itself in as she crawled right on top of it. Lovely.

The path eventually came to a sudden drop, the neon red going straight down ahead of her. Peering over, she saw that the line seemed to go on long enough; she wouldn't be able to hear a rock fall to the ground. Quietly she began her decent down, clinging to the flat walls carefully, so she would not slip down and cause a loud rumble that would announce her presence; that was the last thing she needed to happen to her.

After several minutes of this decent down, the floor of the passage was finally visible, and just a few spaces ahead, a slotted panel, that lit up the blood's path out. Attempting to remain quiet, she pulled the panel up, and hopped down, right into a underground portion of the asylum. Above seemed normal, this however was kept tidier, and organized, even with the trail going on down the hall. However, her footing was off slightly as she managed to crack a panel of glass under her, looking down immediately, she saw that the blood was droplets here and was smears past the glass panel.

"Crap," She muttered, unaware that she had made herself visible from the starling sound.

Her only good assumption was that this culprit was a chameleon; not much more could crawl across the ceiling and leave the glass panel untouched. Whoever it was knew that not very many pay much attention to details. With the glass breaking under her, she made herself quite known now. Whoever was ahead of her, now knew she was here.

Kaity went quickly but silently down the hall, keeping to the shadows. The lights were almost completely broken, save for a bulb shining every now and then. When the light did appear, the walls they shown light on were bare and off-white. It brought to mind a hospital. The female padded her pocket for the twentieth time since she had gotten there. If this 'Mince' guy could easily over-power Sonic, and Espio, Chaos knows what this guy could do against her. The gun was still there, just as it had been every other time she checked. The chameleon at last came to a brown, wooden door at the end of the hall. She twisted the brass knob and threw the door open, the room looked just like the hallway; off-white with the exception of some peeling paint and a few spots yellowed from age.

"I got a bad feelin' 'bout this place..." Kaity muttered to herself as she walked in. The door slammed behind her and she spun to face a brown chameleon. The immediate eye-catcher of this chameleon's appearance was head; a crown of grey horns circled around his front and seemed to trim the scaly eyebrow. Not only that, but what looked like a grey horn that had been sanded down to nothing but a stump on his face was under a normal grey horn. His eyes were slits of red surrounded by black where there should have been white.

The chameleon in question leaned nonchalantly against the door, his uncurled tail swishing contently, and his red eyes sizing up the obviously younger chameleon. With swift strides, the male stood in front of Kaity, his black coat settling around him as he came to a stop.

"And who're you, little girl?" he asked with an amused grin.

Kaity twitched at the name 'little girl'. "That's none of your business, Mince."

"Oh, you know my name. I'm impressed." he answered sarcastically. "Doesn't matter, I had guessed someone would come for them. Though I was thinking it would someone more...experienced in fighting." the last words were said looking over the female chameleon once again.

"Looks are deceivin'." Kaity smirked.

The same smirk appeared on Mince's face. "prove it." With that, he slammed a fist into the younger chameleon's stomach, sending her stumbling a few feet away.

As soon as Kaity recovered from the sudden blow, she sent out a line of kunai after Mince. The male dodged smoothly, but fell at the sudden weight of his opponent jumping him, raking a ninja star across his head. A small trickle of blood showing. Mince flipped her off and raked his claws across her muzzle, resulting in three lines of red showing on her tan muzzle. Kaity jumped away, ignoring the blood and going at her opponent again. Mince side-stepped coolly, watching the young she-ninja go by. He snarled as a sudden pain shot up and down his side, instantly flicking his head down to see what could have caused such a feeling. A neat cut had been sliced into his side. Kaity circled back for another attack, but found herself slammed against a wall, the older chameleon's claws raking across her face again, opening another wound.

"Why do you fight for them, anyway?" Mince chuckled. "They were mine to begin with."

"Sonic isn't yours, and Espio sure as hell isn't yours." Kaity hissed back, swiping at Mince. He immediately backed off, the pain pulsing in his head from the blow. Kaity took the moment to plant her foot into his stomach; he fell back as a result. "Why do you want them?" she asked, taking slower breaths and assuming a fighting stance. "Nothin' good ever comes outta bein' evil."

Mince chuckled. "Don't be so sure. And I've never said anything about being evil."

"Well ya sure aren't a good guy."

"Obviously. You get nothing from being good, or respectable in the eyes of anyone. I know that too well." he growled.

Kaity stared at him oddly, she didn't know anything about him, but did he have some past as a good guy? She didn't have any time to ponder this before Mince dealt a powerful blow and sent her sprawling across the ground. A heavy foot came down on her, already taking air from her lungs. "Do you really think they care about you?" Mince laughed. "You can barely fight, what good can you do to them? You'd be much better suited for my side, given your past."

"How do ya-?"

"I know plenty of things." he smirked at the look of surprise invading the other chameleon's eyes. "And we aren't too different; we've both been wronged by a higher force then ourselves."

Kaity growled. "Even if yer right, that doesn't give anyone the right ta go crazy and be like you."

"Now when did I say _that_ was what made me like this?" his coy grin suggested he wouldn't tell anymore, so Kaity didn't push the matter. Priority one was getting back Espio and Sonic.

"How 'bout we quit with the banter and ya tell me where ya locked my friends up at?" Kaity said, spinning a kunai around one finger.

"I'd love to." the mutant chameleon said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He dashed forward, grabbing a stray kunai from the ground and slashing at Kaity, who took an instinctive step back, gasping in pain as her own weapon penetrated her skin. A hand automatically went to the wound, blood already soaking into her black shirt. "What if I told you I've already killed them?" Mince asked, a smirk going back over his muzzle. He suddenly found himself staring down the muzzle of a gun, but remained completely relaxed. The young chameleon-girl holding the gun had a look of hate in here icy-blue eyes. Mince crossed his arms nonchalantly. "Gonna shoot me, little girl?"

Kaity twitched at the name once again, somewhere in her mind, a tiny fire that had started when they had first began talking, had grown into a wild fire, boiling her blood and urging her on to pull the trigger at the thought of this madman killing Espio. Kaity remained silent, gritting her teeth in hate for this new chameleon.

"Go ahead. Shoot me. I **dare** you."

It was like something inside her suddenly took control, the she-ninja closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

**Next Chapter may be posted tomorrow. IDK, it will be sometime soon, though. Gotta spell check and proof read X3**


	2. Oops

She opened her eyes, and found the mutant chameleon still standing, him also with his eyes closed, and a bullet wound right in between his two horns and eyes. Kaity continued to stare back at the mutant chameleon, wondering if he was still alive, or was about ready to drop dead, and kept the gun up out of caution.

Mince's eyes then flicked open, his eyes black with red slits, and slowly a manical grin creased his face, followed by a chuckle that sent Kaity's spine to shiver in fear. The bullet should've killed him, it was right between the eyes, but there this abnormal chameleon was; standing, alive, and laughing back at her.

Before Kaity could get her thoughts back in order, Mince quickly spun around and sent her flying back with a high-kick, knocking her into a glass table that held damaged computer techs, the glass slicing through her skin, shredding it little by little until she laid almost motionless under fragments of glass and pieces of wires and chips. Kaity groaned a little as the glass poked against her back, shredding her black shirt little by little as she moved.

"H-How?" Kaity stuttered, watching Mince move towards her slowly.

Mince continued to laugh menacingly, his bullet wound healing within a matter of minutes, along with all of the other wounds Kaity brought against him, "Oh, you have no idea what you're up against. Not even Sonic could take me, after all the damage I've already done to him."

Kaity groaned a little, and rolled over to her side to get off most of the glass, making her way up onto her hands and knees, her back turned to the alien-like chameleon. Mince found it another advantage, and quickly laid his foot down onto her slashed back, putting her back into the sea of glass shards and wire work, forcing her to throw up her breath, and kept his foot pressed down until she could feel the shards start tp pierce through her shirt.

Mince then knelt down and moved his head closer to hers, "You made a terrible mistake coming down after Espio and Sonic, now that I think of it, perhaps you could even serve me in the long run."

She growled in return, fidgeting under his foot, the shards ripping the front of her shirt and digging into her skin, "I'd never serve ya! Not ever in my lifetime!"

The mutant found it entertaining to watch her squirm under his foot, and traced a nail all around her back and shoulder, "I don't think you have much of a choice. Now that Sonic and Espio are mine, so will you."

"Yers?" She gulped a little, quickly getting a few ideas.

"Now, Kaity..." Mince sneered, grabbing a hold of her shoulder, his nails digging in with a small string of pain, "Let's see you fight this!"

The male quickly took his foot off, and flung the female back away from the broken glass. Kaity found this her only chance of fighting back, and tried her best to get back onto her feet while ignoring the sharp pain that coated her entire upper body with the small fragments of glass still on her. Just as Mince turned to charge towards her, she grasped one of her stray kunais and slashed it across his stomach, hoping to slow the chameleon down at least a little. She then felt the kunai slip from her hands as it stuck into his stomach.

Mince quickly flinched and backed away, grasping around his stomach as the kunai dug deeply into his stomach, screeching in agony and curling up as he continued to back away from her. Kaity paused, watching the male back off from her with his head tucked tightly, still crying out as the kunai that stuck to his stomach kept its place. Kaity smiled a little, finally figuring out that he _did _infact have a weakness.

"I thought ya couldn't be killed, Mince." She smirked, standing back up slowly.

Mince glared back at her deathly, a deep growling noise then sounded from his throat, "You just bought yourself a death ticket!"

Kaity grinned back, "That's if ya can get me again."

Her mocking didn't help her winning status, pushing Mince to snarl viciously at her, holding his stomach with one hand, and reach back to his tail with the other. The mutant's tail suddenly grew a sharp edge and hardened, almost a black stone with a jagged blade, with his one hand, he snapped the hardened tail right off of the fresh flesh, his tail regrowing again. Kaity's eyes widened a little as he held the weapon angrily in his hand, and started to back off back to the wooden door behind her.

Before she could turn and run to escape, Mince reared back and threw the blade straight at her, shooting like an arrow, and took the female's arm right into the wooden door. Kaity screamed as the blade nailed itself to her into the door, blood spilling out fast, but the pain was too much to handle to try and pull the blade out, with the jagged edges, it would only rip her arm muscles even more. She then started to panic as her arm starting to go numb, her muscles twitching uncontrollably, and soon nothing, but every time she moved, the pain swiftly shot back.

"Never," Mince snarled lowly, "Never, come near the stomach."

As she continued to jerk around, the sharp blade slipped deeper groves around it, making her cry with misery. She then attempted to pull the blade out, but just grasping the blade shredded her gloves and opened more wounds onto her hand, as if the blade was entirely made of knives and thorns. Kaity then resisted no more as she found that the blade had her pinned down permanently until Mince would remove it himself. Mince then slowly moved up with his hand on the kunai, taking a deep breath as he ripped it out from his stomach, letting out another screeching noise that pierced Kaity's ears.

Mince threw the kunai aside, and stared back at Kaity, his eyes now just a normal red eyes, no black, and no red slits, but continued to glare at her, "Obviously they didn't tell you where _not _to attack. Nor did they tell you that you could discharge something."

"They told me that ya could shape-shift." She growled back, "But at least I found yer weakness."

"That weakness is only another weapon." He calmed down slowly, breathing heavily to try and regain energy, "I should've just stabbed it further into me so you could die a most gruesome death."

"So before ya actually kill me or, do whatever," She tried to jump to a different subject, "What's that scar across yer stomach?"

The mutant bastard took a glance down to what Kaity pointed out, his open vest baring his forever printed scars that ran across his chest and deeply in his stomach. Seeing the scars then verified his idea, the anxiety pushing him to chuckle deeply, then louder, into a menacing laugh, distracting Kaity from seeing his hand pick up the kunai he just removed from his stomach.

"Um, what did I say?" She gazed at the chameleon in a slight state of fear.

"Maybe I'll will...I'll send the FBI a message." His face creased a grin that tattooed itself into her mind, so sinister, and purely evil, it was one no one can erase form their mind, "A message that says 'never test me again'."

Kaity snorted at Mince's comment, "It's the FBI, what more can you expect?"

Mince then approached the female chameleon, the kunai right at her stomach, his face within inches of hers, and his tail swaying slowly in patience. Kaity pressed her head back against the door as he drew closer to her, not wanting to feel the heat that emitted from his body, nor feel the hot breath coat her face and neck.

"How about this..." He sneered as his grin grew bigger, "A Jack in the Box."

_Kaity's body then undergone a shock that seemed to have paralyzed her from the neck down, something pricked her neck, and a hard fluid tightly squirmed through her veins, instantly blinded from witnessing anything through her own eyes. All she could feel was her stomach churning, and churning. Eventually, her brain shut down, and sent her into a temporary state of rest in her passed out body. After Mince's escape several hours ago, Kaity was discovered by the remaining Team Chaotix, and was sent to the hospital for urgent treatment. A wolf named Samiria was to be the only one who would treat her, care for her, and perform surgery. She was also one of few who knew who Mince was...  
_


	3. The Kaity Approach

"You're not going back." Vector had told her with a firm tone, "You _just _got out of the hospital and we already know he's more than a match for you."

Kaity had growled at the comment. She knew Mince was on all accounts stronger than her, but she wasn't about to let that stop her, it never had. After all, he had said in their last meeting that Espio and Sonic were already his pets and she had every intention of breaking Mince's leash on the two. "But I'm fine." the chamelon protested, "I've walked away from worse that that. 'sides, if I get attacked by actual aliens in there, all I gotta do is shoot 'em with water or sneeze on 'em." The green croc looked at her like she was crazy. Charmy only giggled. "...Ya don't watch a lot of movies, do ya?" the chameleon girl asked blandly.

Vector shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Ya aren't goin' back for Espio or Sonic yet. Not if I've got anythin' to say about it."

"Well then, good thing I don't listen ta ya much." Kaity smirked.

"How can you still be joking about a thing like this?!" Vector demanded harshly, "Our best defenses against Mince are getting taken, you and several others were almost killed, and you're still making a joke out of it! Why!?"

By this point the green croc was fuming, almost out of control, but the younger reptile managed to keep her cool. She crossed her arms. "It's my defense mechanism." she answered curtly. Sure, she was scared of the whole situation, but that wouldn't be showing around her close friends, not until she started trying to convince all them everything was going to work out fine. Vector's only responce to that had been to send Kaity away for a while until the head detective could calm down enough to have a conversation without ripping the smaller reptile's head off.

**OoOoO**

And so the she-ninja-in-training ended up standing not too far from Mince Marvelo's center of operation. Taking the Espio approach to the situation hadn't done anything for her, sure, she got in easier but was no closer to finding and getting both Mobians safe from Mince. Now it was time for her own approach. The female grinned and jogged the rest of the way to the base, already full of ideas and gitty with excitment for each and every one of them. The game was on.

She entered the same way she had before, just as carefully to avoid being detected too early in the game. The chameleon slipped out into a familiar hall and looked around for what she had expected to be there. And just as Kaity had thought, the security camera she had scrambled to avoid last time was still there and working. Kaity took a breath and strolled out into its view and waved to it. The camera froze on her. "Hi Mince." she said to the camera, "Wanna play a game? it's called 'Catch me if ya can before I find Espio'." she dared with a challenging grin promptly taking a can of black spray paint from a bag she had readied before going in and spraying the lens with black before running farther into the base.

**OoOoO**

Mince Marvelo had, of course, seen the challenge and grinned to himself. It was hard to tell wither the female chameleon was determined and cocky or just plain stupid. Either way, maybe the FBI just needed another message about sending agents in to stop him. the brown mutant looked over at his brother, who had also just heard and seen the chameleon girl. Darren Marvelo, in almost every respect, looked different from his slightly twisted brother, he was silver with blue eyes and had only two horns on his head. Though he shared Mince's chameleon-alien mutation, though it happened in a very different way, and both had a similar taste in clothes.

Darren watched the camera be spray painted black before casting a glance at Mince, as if telling him to explain. Mince only shrugged it off, he couldn't recall if he had told his brother about his encounters with the intruding girl, but that wasn't that important at the moment. the brown chamelen-alien stood up and headed for the door. "Want to help catch her?" he asked casually, "It's been interesting every other time."

**OoOoO**

Kaity had secretly been hoping to hear Espio's voice in her head again, just like she had before. At least some assurance her fellow detective was still alive and sane. But it didn't seem like she'd be getting that wish, the next best thing was to let Mince chase her around until she found where he was keeping Espio and Sonic. She suddenly was aware of foot falls coming in her direction. three maybe? No, just two and they were running.

Maybe Mince was just letting someone else come after her, it was hard to tell with that guy. "Either way," she said quietly to herself, breaking into a run, "I'm not goin' down that easy." Voices suddenly floated to her with the foot steps which were getting closer, Mince's voice she recgonized easy, also getting the image the evil grin he had given her before she had been put into the hospital. The second voice she didn't recgonize. It occured to her that one of two people could be there; she had been told Mince had a brother, Darren, who she had yet to meet, or something called 'Silent Stalker', which she knew nothing about.

No sooner had she finished the thought than her feet suddenly stopped. She took a minute to catch up with herself; her mind suddenly flashed to a scene from an old movie, pulling her attention to the stray pole proped up against the wall. Kaity grinned devianty, knowing a staircase was ahead. the only question was; would he fall for it?

**OoOoO**

"What makes you so sure she went this way?" Darren demanded, following at his brother's speed. "She could have-"

"Because she knows this way." Mince countered seriously, keeping his red eyes ahead and sharp. "even Sonic wouldn't do that and not know where he was going." a knowing grin suddenly crawled across his face, "That, and I can hear her ahead. Now come on." The brown mutant pushed himself faster, followed quickly by his brother, and stopped at the bottom of the same small stairway Kaity had climbed not long ago.

The evidence of that was the fuschia chameleon standing at the top of the stairs; leaning against the wall and gasping for breath. The younger chameleon looked startled to suddenly see the mutant staring at her and gasped. "Ya better stay away." the growled firecely.

Mince flashed her the same grin that was trapped in her mind and started up the stairs, unaware of the trap that's been set for him. "Or else what, little girl?" he asked.

Darren cleared his throat, not as eager to get to Kaity as Mince and therefore noticed the trap. "Um, Mince..." he started.

"Not now." Mince said, waving him off, "I wanna enjoy this."

The chameleon at the top smiled knowingly. "Me too." that being said, the chameleon jumped onto the pole's top, which was positined close to her and got the wanted action. The metal bar she had found went up how it should and effectivly hit Mince between the legs. Kaity laughed at the sudden change of expression on her presuer and took her weight off, watching the mutant chameleon crumple onto the stairs. He growled something under his breath Kaity choose not to hear. "We'll call this Kaity: one, Mince: zero." she laughted, "Bye Mince." She turned and ran down the hall, formulating her next plan to keep the Marvelo brothers at bay.

The silver mutant chameleon crouched down by his brother; as painful as that had just looked, it was also a little funny to see it happen to his brother. "Is now a good time to tell you about the trap?" he asked with a snide smirk. Mince only growled in response.

**OoOoO**

Kaity slid around the next turn and sat herself onto the ground, chuckling hysterically. "I'm _so _gonna pay for that later." she mused to herself, knowing how much karma seemed to come back at her. The chameleon stopped chuckling suddenly as a small, hedgehog-looking creature stopped by her, sitting down and staring at her. It took a moment for the she-ninja to recgonize the creature as a Laboring and another to realize she had in fact seen this particular laboring before; a few deep scratches that covered its body reminded her of an encounter with a Sleaker that had almost gotten bad. That is, until the brave little creature lead the much bigger one away.

The chameleon smiled fondly at the creature and carefully put a hand forward for it. "Hey, buddy." she said, "I owe ya one for savin' my tail from that Screecher." The Laboring wagged its tail slighty in recgonition, making the chameleon unintentionally smile. "Hey, ya wanna help me make Mince mad?" she asked, getting a tilited-head response from the Laboring before it seemed to nod its head and walk closer to the chameleon. The girl smiled wickedly. "Cool. Come on, we gotta set up the next one before Mince finds us."

**OoOoO**

Mince, now that he had regained his bearings, stormed in the same direction he had seen the chameleon girl disappear in, the whites of his eyes flashing between black and white. Her apporach was _much _different than it had been during their first encounters and found he was stuck between hating her for it or having a very small hint of admiration for her boldness. Darren followed, not at all phased by his brother's change. The blue-eyed chameleon grinned, finding slight amusment by his brothers flared temper. "So, since you seem to know her better," Darren started, keeping his grin on despite Mince's evil glare, "Where do you think she's heading?"

"To find Espio, of course." Mince answered, scanning the hall they turned down and walking on with he finds nothing. "That's her reason for coming back, but she has no clue where to even begin looking." the brown chameleon stopped short by the door at the end of the hall, it stood open only ajar with the faint sound of footsteps padding away inside. "She must think we're stupid." he mused, giving the door a swift kick and backing up as a bucket toppled down and spilled a familiar smelling liquid where the brothers should have been standing.

"Seems a bit obvious." Darren said, slightly disappopinted by this trap. Only after a plastic lighter fell down and flared the liquid into fire did both draw back. "Wow, she must _really _hate you if she tried to set you on fire." the silver chameleon chuckled.

Mince didn't seem as amused by it. "You could say that." he responded, backing up a few steps. "Now come on. The longer we stay here and stare at it, the closer she may get to Espio." With that, the brown chameleon ran forward and through the fire, any burn wounds he took healing themselves in the next instant. Darren lept though the flames and getting the same effects as his brother. The footsteps had stopped, but the plastic gasoline tank and black streaks of spray paint left behind pointed the Marvelo brothers in the right direction.

**OoOoO**

Kaity was disappointed to hear nothing from her last trap; granted it was an old and obvious one, even with her twist added to it. She looked at the Laboring she carried in her 'borrowed' bag from the FBI. "Honestly, I would've loved ta see 'im burn up...as cruel as it sounds for a good guy ta say." The Hedgheog-looking Laboring looked up at her strangely. "Nevermind," the chameleon shook her head, "Time for the last one I've got in here."

The fuschia chameleon stopped at the bottom of another stairway, carefully took out her Laboring friend and emptied the remainder of the bag on the ground; small marbles. the detective girl winked at the four-legged creature following her, "With any luck he'll be too distracted by me ta see 'em. Or what 'e'll have comin' next" The Laboring wagged its tail in response.

**OoOoO**

Darren was the first to spot the chameleon sitting on the railing at the top of the stairs. She waved at him. The silver mutant chameleon pointed her out to his brother, who already started toward the stairs upon seeing her. The chameleon up top grinned, keeping calm. "Ya must be Darren." she started, keeping her blue eyes locked onto his. "Sorry ya had ta get mixed up in my revenge against yer brother. I've got nothin' against ya...yet." Both turned their attention to Mince as a sudden yelp struck the air, along with marbles sliding every which way under the mutant-alien chameleon and landing him flat on his back. "Give up yet?" she called down to him.

"Never!" Mince hissed, his eyes now black and red as he launched himself up the stairs at his target. Darren rushed to help his brother, narrowly escaping slipping in the stairs from the excess marbles straying around.

The youngest chameleon flashed her own signature smirk. "I was hopin' ya'd say that." She lept off the rail, snatched up her FBI bag and ran. Mince just reached the top when a snap alerted him of something amiss. Mince ducked away from an on-coming pipe, about as thick as Vector's arm.

Darren, who just then got to the top of the stairs, wasn't as lucky. A metallic _Clang _is promptly followed by Darren being swept off his feet and back down the stairs. The sliver chameleon pulled his arms across his chest and straightened his legs as he rolls down the staircase. The alien-chameleon, when he finally came to a painful stop at the bottom snarled and jetted up the stairs after his brother (Who did in fact chuckle a little at his brother's misfortune).

**OoOoO**

Kaity swiftly turned down another hall, looking back once more in case the brothers were already catching up. The hall, much to her surprise, finished at a dead end. "Great," she mused, "Just great." The little Laboring in her bag poked its head out to see the cause of the sudden stop. The creature looked up with its ears folded back and whined quietly. The mobian girl looked down at the creature she carried with her. "Hey, fight's not over yet." she assured, spotting a small vent on the wall.

Kaity quickly unlatched the cover and sent the Laboring inside. The hedgehog-looking creature turned back and looked at her questioningly.

"Mince is gonna be here soon and I'm not leavin' ya ta deal with 'im." She explained to her small partner. "I'm not sure where this leads, but make sure ya get yourself some place safe, alright? I'm gonna be fine; I deal with creeps and pyschos all the time. 'Sides, now things get fun." With those final words, she flipped the vent back into place and took out her black spraypaint for the last time. Footsteps pounded down the hall and on their way as she quickly scrawled her message and invisibly climbed the wall to wait on a pipeline running above. All the while going over the rules of a two-on-one match Espio had drilled into her head (Should she for some reason provoke such a battle): Keep your back to the wall, always keep your guard up and always _**always **_make sure you can see all of the enemy's side. No sooner had she leaned her weight against the wall for support did Mince, eyes black and slitted red, turn into the hall to investigate.

**OoOoO**

the hall was empty but he was sure she had been though there, the dead end told him that much. An FBI bag and a stray can of spraypaint lay alone on the ground and the girl chameleon's final words before disappearing. _'Maybe 'disappear' is too strong a word'_ Mince decided, scanning around. _'Chameleons can turn invisible, but they can't disappear.' _Just looking at the message on the wall told him she couldn't have gotten far; He wasn't among the top scientists for believing that something wasn't there just because it couldn't be seen.

The message on the wall was in capital letters, obviously to tell one letter from the other in the hurried scrawl it was written in. The first word had been shortened, which obviously said she was in a hurry. That, and the scent of wet paint was still on it, which meant it hadn't been done too long ago. Mince grinned at the new challenge he had been given by the chameleon girl:

**UR**

**MOVE**


	4. Start the Game with Fear

Darren shortly followed after Mince stopped to view the message, only trotting from the beating he recieved from the large bar that smacked him right across the chest. As Darren made his approach next to Mince, the brown chameleon started to checkle menacingly, his arms crossed, simply laughing at the idea that such a small enemy dared to challenge him. The silver chameleon gawked at him with no clue of what all of this was about, but from he could gather from Mince laughing, the chameleon wasn't in fear, nor was he intimidated.

Mince calmed his laughing some and kept his wide grin smothering his face, "She just brought doom upon her friends."

The silver one gazed over back at the message, seeing what he meant, and had a feeling Mince wasn't going to waste time fooling with this girl. Of course, Darren had no idea what the two threw down against each other, but after finding a mass amount of blood in one of the destroyed labs, he then quickly gathered that Mince wasn't light from the start. This explained why this girl was trying to strike back with a punch, but, knowing Mince, he can come back with a one-hit kill.

"Darren," Mince turned his head slightly, "Go to the lab, get the ILR E442, along with the POR 69, administer the ILR to Espio, and the POR to Sonic."

The silver one raised a brow, "Now? And with Sonic?"

"It hurts more to be betrayed by your long-time friends than a short-known enemy." Mince tried to explain, "It'll keep Kaity busy."

"For what, may I ask." Darren growled a little.

"I'll tell you later." Mince stopped him.

Darren, giving a slight nod as Mince turned to him, his eyes now a normal red. The silver chameleon then turned and vanished, making sure if the girl just happened to be around, she wouldn't be able to follow him. Kaity's heart sank as her hopes were flattened, this was the one opportunity she was waiting for, a path laid out right in front of her to follow, only to be denied, and forced to find them for herself, again. Wanting to bang her head to rid of the agony, she gripped the bars tighter as she looked down at Mince, who then slowly raised his head right into her direction, his grin fading away.

"Stay up there a little longer." He growled, "If you want to die."

Kaity's heart skipped, unable to believe that the entire time he knew she was up there, it made her back crawl as his eyes flickered back to black with red slits, staring deathly at her. She clinched the bars even tighter, her mind racing for idea of what to do, whether to jump down and face the horror music, or try and escape through the pipelines. When she took a glance up and back down, instantly the chameleon was gone.

Her entire body started to shake, getting even more nervous, hoping the chameleon wasn't planning anything at the moment. After a few minutes though, the chameleon realized that he was indeed gone. Silently she slipped down from the pipelineage that stretched down the halls and split left and right, then looked back to the message, finding another one below hers, a note, written in blood.

Her skin crawled, as she read the words, almost acting like a riddle of sorts:

_One will beg for mercy,  
Another will become your enemy,  
The mercy will bring a swarm you'd never witnessed or seen,  
The enemy will bring you to me,  
Try and fight if you dare,  
Life or death beyond dispair,  
Test my knowledge, test your theory,  
One way or the other,  
You'll be mine,  
Play the game wisely,  
Every step you take, every trick you play, determines their fate,  
And finally, before you think you have a plan,  
__**Follow the blood of Espio...**_

The last setnece was written with more volume of blood, intensifying a threat towards her, this indicated it became Mince's game now. The message she wrote only gave him the control stick, and now he'll pressure her to follow the rules. It also threatened Espio and Sonic's life, continuing to interperate the message in her head, if she didn't obey his rules, she's screwed, if she opens the wrong door, she's screwed, and if she takes one wrong step out of line, she's dead. It was time to follow it, as much as the chameleon hated to follow an adult's orders or rules, if it meant for the sake of the two, she had no choice.

The last sentence then reminded her that she needed to get moving, quickly she spun around, but found no blood trail. It didn't make sense to her, but, she sighed and crumpled the note, tossing it into the FBI bag. She then paused again and stared inside the black bag, and took notice of a silver key that glistened in the light, but also was lightly stained with blood. _Maybe I should take the bag, just in case I find something interesting. _She thought to herself.

She grabbed the bag, and spun around to walk out from the dead end, not realizing she was being followed.

_In Cell Corridor..._

Sonic's body ached terribly, almost to the point he could barely breathe, all he could really do to keep himself alive was to stay awake, though his body begged for sleep, he resisted his body's demand, continung to lay on the ground motionless. It didn't take long after his body signaled for him to obey, when he started to hear Espio next door, who was taken in the first place into the sergeon's room, and has since has remained there with no noise. He started to hear him snarling loudly, able to catch the words, "I'll never serve you" through the walls.

The hedgehog continued to listen, the snarling becoming worse, now able to hear everything they were saying.

_On the other side..._

Espio struggled fiercely to break out of the restraints as Darren pointed the seringe towards him, but a few feet away, just watching the chameleon snarl and howl in anger and resistance. As much as Darren hatd to inject the chameleon, a small portion of it begged him to do it, infecting his mind slowly as he fought when to do it.

"I don't know what you're doing throwing a fit about this," Darren sighed some, "But you won't remember a thing after this."

"It won't work!" Espio snapped loudly, "I know it won't! Now get away from me before I break these cuffs and get free."

"Or what?" Darren raised a brow, "You'll try and kill us both? Tough luck."

The silver chameleon grabbed the teen's head and smacked it back against the table, "Besides, like I said, you won't rmember a thing, in fact, you won't have any control over your body!"

Before Espio could cry out his final words, the silver one stabbed the seringe into his stomach, quickly pushing it so the injection drains into his blood, stinging Espio so badly and tormented the chameleon for a little bit before it finally settled down. In a matter of seconds, Espio vision blurred to blackness, and suddenly couldn't breathe, his cry slowly shifted to a loud screeching and animal-like snarl, starting to feel even more wild, blood-thirsty, and could feel his body shift slowly.

_Hallway..._

Kaity could hear it, the snarling, the howling, and the screeching that eemed to echo not far from where she stood. She couldn't quite tell who it was exactly, but all she figured was it was going to be the first challenge. After taking a few steps closer to the sound, the snarling stopped and a loud BANG noise howled it's way through the halls, bringing her to a halt, as she started to hear claws galloping towards her, and getting louder quicker.

With only seconds to spare, she figured out that the enemy was coming fast, and she only had a few seconds to figure out a way to fight. Her biggest mistake was forgetting to bring weapons to fight, apparently she hoped that this would be easy. Swinging her head around in panic as she started to hear menacing snarling, Kaity then finally decided to turn and run, in no way was there a weapon nearby, so her only stragedy was to run and try to get distance, behind her could be the one thing that would kill her.

She wrapped around the right, finally at her top speed, until an arm she couldn't see at all swung out in front of her, knocking her across the chest and flipped her down onto her back, knocking the wind right out of her lungs. Startled by the random hit, her vision was fogged temporarily, then cleared back up after laying on the ground, the noise that was behind her gone as she didn't even notice hearing anything within that time. The chameleon slowly regained her bearings, staring back up at the ceiling, having no clue of where the delay came from at all.

Taking a deep breath after hearing nothing but a still silence, but still tense, she blinked a few times and slide her hands up to her side to position to push her up. Her view of the ceiling vanished, as a large mutated creature looked down at her and snarled visciously down at her, vibrating against her, making her entire body shake, pushing Kaity to scream in fright from the sudden appearance. The creatre then opened it's jaws and went down towards her, quickly she rolled to the side and scrambled to her feet just as a full set of claws came at her. She dodged to the side, but she missed seeing a tail decorated with thorns smack against her, sending her through a glass window and into another room.

Kaity barely had enough time to get up before the massive mutant leaped through and position its body over hers, growling lowly as its fangs were bare down directly towards her, making her tremble. Just as the massive mutant went to snap at her head, it quickly lifted its head back up, stopping the growling and giving Kaity a moment to recuperate. There stood the little Laboring that saved Kaity's life once, barking at the creature to try and draw it away from her, growling and arching its back; doing whatever it can.

The creature took the bait, then without warning, literally stomped on Kaity with the claws digging into her, and leaped after it, snarling and chased the Laboring, who ran as fast as it could and lured the creature away.

All Kaity could do was cry some and grasp the fresh wounds in pain, realizing how close she was to being eaten alive, and just how viscious it looked, she knew that memory was never going to leave her, as she quickly figured out that the dark purple-tinted creature was indeed the one Mince warned her about. The chameleon then moved underneath a steel table, and curled up, trying to soke up the pain and terror, but after that, she now was beginning to see that it was suicide coming down here again.

The one thing she needed was the medical kit, Samiria, who was the one that took care of her while in the hospital, offered her a kit just before she left. Kaity wished she had taken it; the blood was pouring out, and the wounds stung her, torturing her. Kaity then finally got it through her head, if she was going to win, she needed to come prepared, since she didn't, she has to use what's around her.

This was only the start of the game...


	5. Just Like Chess

The fuchsia chameleon girl shook, keeping herself curled under the steel table like it would shield her from any sneak attacks Mince may already have planned. She wrapped her arms around herself, willing the shivering to stop. "Calm down." She told herself. "Ya aren't gonna die here...no matter how much like a suicide mission this looks like." Kaity took a few calm breaths and uncurled herself to think. She pulled Mince's blood note from her FBI bag and read it over again, murmering the first two lines to herself; 'One will beg for mercy, Another will become your enemy'. The first one was Sonic, that was obvious from the next line. She didn't have to be a detective to figure out that her new enemy would somehow be Espio. Mince knew that would hurt her, and would most likely take full advantage of it. though it suddenly came to mind if Mince knew just how much the younger chameleon cared for the captured one. _'Probably not.'_ she decided, _''E hasn't known me_ that _long yet.'_

She went to the next lines: 'The mercy will bring a swarm you'd never witnessed or seen, The enemy will bring you to me'. The first like was still sort of cryptic, but the next was easy enough, Espio would lead her straight to Mince...once she found him, that is. "Then 'e gets what 'e deserves." she growled. The rest she already knew, play the game and follow the rules. As much as she hated to have to play by Mince's rules, she had no other option if she wanted Espio and Sonic alive. The last line still sent a shiver down her spine. Follow the blood of Espio. The she-ninja shivered again and replaced the message, her attention suddenly going to the key that had been left for her with the message. It was silver and ever so slightly stained with blood.

"The blood of Espio..." she said to herself, taking to key out to examine it closer. Of course, she doubted it actually _was_ Espio's blood; unless Mince was crazy enough to carry around blood with him. But maybe this key would lead her to her fellow detective, or at least put her on the right track. Suddenly it was a mystery begging to be solved.

Kaity smiled, feeling her courage coming back to her and setting her mind in motion. Kaity looked at the key as if it would tell her which door to unlock, but it said nothing, sitting silently in the chameleon's hand as she processed everything that had happened so far: Most of her plan had gone without a hitch, but then Mince decided to take control. She'd have to find out what ILR and POR stood for, though she prayed the numbers attached meant nothing to it; she couldn't remember either of them. Next was the creature that had attacked her.

The chameleon girl paused suddenly; now that she thought about it, the creature had appeared not long after she heard screeching. it _appeared_. It didn't turn a corner and surprise her, it appeared from the ceiling...and the invisible blow she had gotten. She quickly shook away her thought. "Mince wouldn't do anythin' ta Espio this early in the game. Not just ta get ta me...'least, I hope 'e wouldn't."

**OoOoO**

Mince kept a steady pace and a firm hold on the bucket of blood he carried, finding no great hurry for his next task, she'd follow everything he set out and they both knew it. What a perfect advantage. The brown mutant-chameleon looked at each door he passed, looking for the door he was sending Kaity toward. A simple wooden door with a window looking in, a one-way if he wasn't mistaken.

The older chameleon dipped his hand into the blood; it was cold from its long time out of a body. He theoretically spread it across the door and frame; it looked enough like the blood had found its new place by stabbing. And that was exactly what he wanted the chameleon to think happened to Espio. Besides, Kaity didn't haveto know this wasn't Espio's blood...not yet it wasn't, anyway.

He looked into his bucket; plenty to point her in the right direction. "Follow the blood of Espio." He laughed to himself, starting back the way he came and letting the blood swash from the bucket however it pleased, occasionally painting some across the walls to further play with his smaller opponent's mind and feelings. "Maybe I can throw some Laborings at her next." he mused to himself, satisfied with the image of several unstable Laborings, or even better, a Super Laboring, going after a terrified and confused Kaity. He chuckled and finished his job of painting the hall with blood, turning back toward the door he had set up to be found, he'd need several surprises to keep her following the trail. After that, all he had to do was sit back and wait for his detective opponent to pick up the trail.

**OoOoO**

With the job Mince had given him done, Darren Marvelo was curious to see what would happen with the two chameleons and their game. He took a seat in the security room to watch each player move. Mince was doing Chaos knows what with a bucket of blood and the one he had recently met was actually in full stride down a hall not far from his brother, despite what appeared to be several wounds.

The silver chameleon leaned back in the chair; his brother was going to be rough with this game, that much was obvious with what the watching chameleon-alien had been instructed to do. He swiveled his vision over to the chameleon girl who had stopped for whatever reason, it would be interesting to see. Maybe Mince finally met his match, maybe not. Only time would tell. But Darren couldn't help feel a small pang of guilt about letting this game go on. No matter what, Mince was less likely to come out the most harmed by it all. He sighed and watched both monitors from his chair.

**OoOoO**

Kaity gasped in pain, remembering her wounds from the creature. "Alright, first find somethin' ta fix this, then go find Espio." she decided, quickly walking into a room and finding a lab coat sprawled across the ground like it had been taken off in a hurry. the chameleon didn't bother looking into what may have happened, but instead tore the sleeves of the coat and used them to bandage her wounds until a proper medical kit could be found.

She exited to room and started back down the hall, he thoughts now wondering to the Laboring that had yet again saved her. _'Whatever it is Laborings like, that one deserves a lot of it.'_ she told herself with a nod.

Her black FBI bag carried several improvised weapons now, broken pipes; a few with sharpened ends for whatever reason, a small collection of the marbles she had come with, and several corked vials and long-necked beakers filled with chemicals and mixtures she had no clue about. Improvisation was the side game, and she'd been playing for a while.

'There's always a way out', the philosophy the chameleon had lived by for seven years already and had yet to fail her. Her battle wounds still hurt, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. the chameleon stopped dead at the sight of a blood splattered hall. She inhaled sharply, almost picturing what sort of battle could have gone on in the hall.

Her curiousity pulled her down the hall, danger or not, she _had_ to find out what had happened to cause this much blood loss. It didn't take long for her to find the door Mince deliberatly painted with blood to lure her. Kaity pulled out her key and, after a hesitant moment, slipped it into the keyhole and heard the door quietly _click_ to let her in.

She held the handle of the door, suddenly wondering if she was walking right into a trap. If she was going to find Espio, she'd need an edge over Mince. Just like chess, a way to secure a checkmate in the end, for good to win the day and all the stuff.

The chameleon girl's mind suddenly went to Darren. The second Marvelo brother didn't seem to share his brother's slight craze and could maybe be reasoned with. She knew nothing about him, but he already seemed nicer from their brief meetings. Maybe, just maybe she could get Darren on her side to even things out. Mince could have home court advantage, and she could have a secret ally in the game. _'If 'e even decided ta help me.'_ she thought to herself, swinging the door open to see what waited for her on the other side.


	6. Challenge 1: Friend, Foe, and Oops

**Quick caution here: It might get past rated T at some points from here on out, depending on one's standards for "safety" ratings.  
That is all :3**

The room was pitch black, not even the light from the hallways Kaity stood in lit the room enough to give her any hint of what laid in wait.

She slid her hands around near the entry way in search of a light switch. Her index finger then caught a small nob, quickly latching her hand onto it, and turned the nob until she heard a loud _clank!_ The lights all around rayed out in life, showing that the room she was entering was much bigger than she expected, the ceiling hovering over her about 30 feet, with wirework, gears, and machinery she had never seen ever in her life.

The room was heavily cluttered with junk and dead Laborings that had been experimented on; thankfully they weren't of Mince's belonging, because of how leathery their coat looked, showing they were several years dead. Along with that, needles connected to tubes leading up to the machinery above seemed to have been used for either blood exchanges, solutions put into the experiments, or a food source, and the noticing of hundreds of syringes housed on racked with the needles pointing up was a bit threatening. Kaity slowly moved through the chamber, giving the mistake of leaving the door behind her open.

She couldn't help but examine the dead Laborings, some were of hedgehog shape, others were of chameleons, and only one in the shape of an echidna, which is a rare occasion, but they are heavily experimented on, due to their rarity.

She lightly slid her finger tips around one smaller chameleon Laboring's side, feeling how hard and sandpaper-like they've become after years of no life, it was sad, because these creatures were made to be experimented on; they're highly intelligent, but when unstable, can be deadly. She shook her head a little to churn her thoughts back to what's of importance, and glanced around, her brain then shut off instantly as the door behind her slammed shut, and locked her inside.

_It was a trap! No!_ She growled to herself, _Shoot! What if it's Mince? Wanting to throw down another fight?_

She could hear the noise of nails tapping on the tables, sending her to spin around and face the stock-pile of syringes, slowly pulling two metal bars out with a jagged edge, and cautiously laid down the bag. The note then came back into mind, the blood probably wasn't Espio's, unfairly blinded, she no way of knowing what blood belonged to who. The nails then quited a hint to her, pushing her now to use her eyes and feel to try to locate the enemy, Kaity, letting a smirk grow across her face, then turned invisible, thinking she could easily outsmart the enemy.

Her method would've been effective, if it wasn't for the enemy standing right behind her, quickly swiping claws across her black, making her to stagger forward, then yanking one of the bars, forcing her body backwards in the process, giving her the feeling as if her arm had nearly been ripped out of her socket. Kaity fell onto her back almost panning herself with the other bar, unveiling her from her invisibility. She quickly got to her feet, raising the bars in her hands and stood in attack mode, her eyes taking hold of the enemy, but sent the startling message down to her whole body to hold her attack.

Espio grinned devilishly, his claws tapping on the table of the dead chameleon Laboring she just examined, his purple color darkened, and his eyes burning a hot yellow with a thinner pupil inside, giving him a slight crazed face, chuckling lowly, "So you did the courtesy of coming after me? Brilliant, now I can drag you to Mince."

"What are ya talkin' 'bout?" Kaity stared back blankly, "We're getting out of-"

Quickly she bit her tongue to silence herself, as Espio disappeared again, leaving her dumbfounded. Unable to trace where he lofted off to, she started to scan the area, moving back into attack position and readying her bars to strike, she hated the idea of having to face the one who taught her to fight, but seeing as Espio was already tampered with, she must do what she can to save him.

A ear-deafening snarl threw her to stumble forward and whip her head back to the sound, there it was again, the same creature that tried to attack her earlier, only to be distracted by the Laboring that lead it away. What she didn't quite understand was how in the world the creature got inside. It's shape was in fact much larger than her own body, quills tracing it's shoulder blades down to about its middle back, the skin almost a dark grey with a hint of purple as the light reflected the moist skin. Red eyes targeting her, and getting ready to attack.

With no time to think, Kaity could easily tell that it was a lot heavier than she could take, watching as it leaped at her with claws drawn out, then took a dive to the right with the bars still in hand. Behind her the mutant landed with its black claws slapping against the metal floor, then quickly spun to Kaity's direction and snapped at her feet. She barely managed to miss the first snap, then the second came, the fangs dropping down and snagging just enough fabric to her camo pants to get hold of the chameleon and pulled her closer to it. Without any grip on the floor, Kaity squirmed around to face the creature, taking one of the jagged bars and did the best she could to skewer through the neck, at the same time it raised an arm to take another swipe at her, the bar going right into the front shoulder. The mutant then let out another snarl that pierced Kaity's ears, toppling to the side, and allowing the chameleon girl a chance to scramble away a few feet.

At this point Kaity felt better knowing that at least she could wound it, but her satisfied feeling slowly dissolved away as she watched the creature shift, taking the shape of her fellow chameleon, and sat up against a table leg.

With little time to spare, Espio reached to the bar and grasped it tightly, then ripped it right out of his front shoulder, howling as the bar ripped a chunk of muscle right out of his front shoulder; a feeling of sickness rose in the girl's stomach. Kaity gritted her teeth as she saw the chunk drip with blood, then squished once the bar was thrown away.

Espio then turned to Kaity, and snarled at her viciously, claws digging into the metal, "Let's see you try that again!"

_In Security Room..._

Darren watched the fight, his arms crossed and feet laid up onto one of the desks right next the the rows of TV's, not entirely thrilled about how Kaity and Espio were fighting each other, but a drop of excitement flowed that kept him interested; the blood also a little pleasing. The silver one felt the weight of his chair increase and a pair of arms that sat onto his head, Mince leaning forward and setting his head on top of his own arms to watch the fight. Blood was a thrill for Mince, pleasing him in the most satisfying way without driving him crazy, unlike the feel of power, in bed.

"Yeeeeeeeees?" Darren finally spoke up.

"Well," Mince began, "I was thinking, with Sonic out, and Kaity kept busy with Espio, the door is locked..."

It didn't take a mastermind to figure out what Mince was trying to gesture, it was a challenge of power, again. For years since Darren fell with Mince and becoming more like him physically, as much as the two are brothers, they also were rivals against one another, it was the skills that Darren lacked, even though he was once a Sensei. It was a challenge of power, to test to see whether Darren, the older brother, would take Mince down below him, since Mince has been dominant since. The rules were simple, can't mutate, can't use any chemicals, you fight until one is down underneath you for ten seconds, then the winner, to prove he had full control over the other, "rode" the loser until it was put through the loser's head that they had lost.

Darren would've won once before, if he just had the courage to lay Mince down onto his knees, and beg to give up his place. Having the more softer heart though, Darren couldn't dare do it, he had the fear of becoming just as crazed and twisted as his own brother, and gave up his win to keep mentally sane. He didn't have as sturdy of a mind though, sex seemed to be the biggest excitement for him, thus Mince nicknamed his tail "Twitchy Tail" because when the silver one seemed aroused or slightly horny, his tail uncontrollably twitched without his knowledge.

Mince then quickly grabbed the silver one around the neck with his arms and strangled him against the chair, giving him the advantage even before Darren even thought about taking his challenge. Thankfully the chair was close enough Darren used his feet to shove the chair right back into Mince, then grabbed the brown chameleon's horn, and pulling him forward, while dragging himself down with him. The two then wrestled with each other, trying to get the other down below them and hold them down, but the other seemed to slip right through their grasp and take them instead. The two growled at each other menacingly, their claws scratching each other deeply, a few of them leaving an open wound here and there.

Finally Mince grabbed Darren by both arms just right, and slammed him down onto the floor, putting his knee on his back and holding his arms tightly behind Darren's back. Darren growled loudly as he tried to struggle out of Mince's grasp, but the younger bother already had him beat, now he had to take it, but as he figured that he would hate it again, the result always ended with Darren begging for more.

_In Regen. Room..._

Kaity flung the bar up just as the psycho creature leaped on top of her, locking its mouth around the bar and pressing down hard against her, trying to break her of her grasp, and hopefully crush her to the point she can't fight. Kaity's arms couldn't hold the weight. Espio was pressing against her, and let her arms go just above her head so he smacked his nose against the floor.

The creature disappeared, but Kaity could feel the breeze of it sweep across her body, leaving her laying down on her own. But why did he just back off suddenly, then disappear, unless he had another strategy, like going through her FBI bag. _The bag!_ Kaity panicked, rolling over to get back up and scurried over to her FBI bag, seeing it had already been tampered with, and one of the tubes were missing, she remembered it being a bright pink, lighter than her fuchsia colored skin.

A hand then wrapped around her mouth and pulled her back against Espio, the two chameleons struggling with one another for a moment, Espio held the test tube over her stomach, open and ready to spill on her, "This should do the trick, considering the effects."

Kaity continued to fight against him, seeing a bright red fluid inside her bag that begged her to use it, using her foot she latched the handle, and slowly pulled it towards her. Espio then grinned, and started to tip the tube just as Kaity got a hold of the red solution, clinched it tightly so she had a firm hold of it, and slapped it right across his face.

cried out as he dropped the pink chemical away from her, leaving glass shards on the floor as he slid back, grasping his left side as the fluid stung his face. Kaity rolled over to her side and rubbed her mouth to rid of the feeling of his hand over her mouth, and watched as the chameleon fell to the ground, instantly falling unconscious.

She stared at the chameleon cautiously, watching to see if at all he'd move, not a single twitch. She sighed in relief, seeing the chemical knocked him out, and saved herself from being dragged to Mince. Kaity then sat up, and looked over at a small label that laid on the floor, with her fingertips, she grabbed the corner, took it between her hands, and read the first part of the label carefully:

**POR  
Code number: 69  
POR = Pregnant with Offensive Release  
INSTRUCTIONS:**

**Females: Inject between 3 to 8 inches above belly button, allow 10 seconds for effect.**

**Males: HANDLE WITH CARE! Coat it on skin anywhere, allow 20 seconds for effect**

**Once applied, have cage ready to catch, weapon ready if to kill. Super Laboring MUST be killed with a gun, aim at the head.**

**Side Effects may Include the following: Unconsciousness, blood discharge in lower area, slight bulging of the stomach, and numbness.**

**Product copyrighted to Mince Marvelo**

Kaity's eyes shrunk, "Oops..."

With no gun, hardly anything to even fend off a Super Laboring, the door was locked behind her with the possibility of no way out, she whipped her head back over to Espio.

She only had a few seconds to think of a way out...


	7. Challenge 2: Escape

"Ya _can't_ be serious!" The chameleon girl rasped quietly, looking back to the door and then her gone-evil friend. Maybe she could break the door down; it was only wood and Espio had been stern about her learning to break boards. She turned back to Espio, still unconscious on the ground. "I'm sorry, I swear I didn't mean ta." the chameleon apologized quickly and turned to her new task. She took a deep breath and threw a side kick at the door, letting out a loud 'Ki-ya!' with the strike.

What Kaity had hoped to see happening was that the door would easily break off its hinges and give her a perfect escape route. But, being friends with the Chaotix so long, her luck was nothing like she had hoped; she instead felt the power of the blow jut back into her leg. The she-ninja-in-training clutched her hurt leg, letting out a quiet string of four-letter words she'd never even think of saying in front of Charmy. "Alright, so kickin' the door is outta the question." she muttered, glancing back at Espio, who had suddenly started growling in pain and had moved to a position Charmy often took when he complained about his stomach hurting...but at least now she knew what POR stood for. _'Which now leaves whatever Espio got_ before _ya decided ta smash 'im in the head...ya idiot.'_

She pushed aside the negative voice and looked around, she was quickly running out of time. Kaity re-gathered her pole weapon, except the one pole that had a chunk of her friends flesh still on it, and the chemical Espio had threatened her with. Whatever it was. As she put both back in her bag, she spotted her key lying silently in the bag.

Espio's snarling and growling grew more dangerous, almost acting as a warning for his newly made enemy to high-tail it away from the room. the smaller fuchsia chameleon stuffed the key into its lock and thanked the higher force that seemed to love her as it unlocked.

Not a second later, a scream ripped from Espio's throat and some other, more animalistic, screech quickly over-powered his.

**OoOoO**

For the moment, Mince had abandoned his victory over his older brother to watch the hitch in his plot turn the game even more toward his favor. He laughed at the irony of what he had mulled over as just a thought suddenly becoming a reality.

The oldest Marvelo brother stood up from his previously pinned position to see what had suddenly caused his brother to forget their game. "What's so funny?" he asked, leaning against the chair to see. He caught sight of the chameleon girl running wildly down a hall with what appeared to be a Super Laboring, one of the chameleon variety, tailing not too far behind.

Mince's laugh turned to a dark chuckle, "She's making this too easy." the brown chameleon responded, "With screw-ups like this happening all the time, she'll never reach me alive." He let out another dark laugh as the image of the chase flicked onto another monitor, the prey skidding for a moment before re-gaining her footing and rushing down the hall. The Hunter merely hopped against the wall and continued the chase with ease, letting out another ear-splitting screech.

"You do realize these monitors all have a thirty second delay on them, right?" Darren questions matter-of-factly and sounding unamused by his brother's thoughts, but secretly feeling a tingle in thrill from the chase.

Mince only shrugged, "Not that that's important." he responded, turning back to his brother with a wide and sickening grin, "Now then, I believe I won our game again."

**OoOoO**

Thirty seconds ahead of what the Marvelo brothers were seeing, Kaity ran as fast as her legs would allow her with her sudden start. The chameleon-looking Super Laboring charged down the hall, its nails matching the beating of its prey's heart.

_cli-click! cli-click! cli-click! cli-click!_

Ba-bum! Ba-bum! Ba-bum! Ba-bum!

Kaity ran, suddenly grateful to be born a Mobian and therefore a better runner on all accounts compared to humans. Now her problem was figuring out how to kill the thing without committing suicide in the process. She never had to learn how to kill a Laboring. Up until Espio and Sonic were taken, she'd never even heard of them or Mince or POR or all the other madness she now had knowledge of. For now all she could do was run and think up one of her own half-baked schemes for coming out alive.

Another pain-inducing screech broke into the rhythm of the chase. The only real problem Kaity had with it was that this one hadn't come from behind her. It came from somewhere in front of her. The chameleon Super Laboring answered with its own cry, which was answered by another pair of nails pounding down the hall. Another Super Laboring charged forward, this one looking like a hedgehog. It only took a second for the detective to make the connection of this new Laboring to Sonic, since he had been administered the POR to begin with. Both Laborings stood at least a foot taller than their decided enemy at the shoulder, and both equally eager to end the chase.

"Shoot..." the chameleon breathed quietly, making a quick turn down another hall just before the hedgehog Laboring could reach her, consequently knocking heads with its chameleon-looking ally.

**OoOoO**

When the second Super laboring screeched, Mince again pulled himself away to watch what had happened thirty seconds ago with an ever-growing malicious and crazed glee. "She's killing herself!" Mince chuckled, watching the panic-stricken chameleon girl skid into a hall just before both Super Laborings conked heads in the middle. Mince laughed at this too; he loved Super Laborings about as much as anyone else who ever had to deal with them. He and Darren watched the chase go to another monitor, both creatures fully intent on their soon-to-be catch.

His face suddenly dropped when Kaity slid to the floor and hurriedly slipped through a door which the Super Laborings followed through, throwing the door off its hinges. the only problem with it was that that particular door would lead both Kaity and the Super Laborings right to himself and Darren. And that had been thirty seconds ago. Both Marvelo brothers could hear the screeches from the chasing beasts and their target's wildly pounding footsteps getting closer. Already too close to get out and get a safe distance away.


	8. Infected

Kaity just managed to catch a glimpse of a striped block above her, it was the ventilation system that was just the right size for her body, feeling a flicker of hope, the chameleon took one more glance at the two Super Laborings chasing behind. Trying to figure out how far back they were, she also hurried to plot her way to get up into the ventilation entrance on the ceiling, and found she might have a chance if everything was timed right.

Luckily enough, there was a broken window right by that little entrance, she'd have to jump onto the window's edge, and take another, potentially deadly jump to catch the entrance, now it was the matter of opening it. As she managed to get closer to the vent, she scavenged through her bag and withdrew the pink liquid. The chameleon slowed to a stop, and faced back towards the Super Laborings, one of them stopped, and another slowing to a walk, snarling at her.

She grinned, "Here! FETCH!"

She threw the meat right past the chameleon breed, and watched as the two scampered desperately after it, falling for the bait. Thus gave her enough time to take a boom stick that laid on the floor by the window, using it to poke the vent's entrance open. hurriedly she jumped on to the edge, then swung around and jumped at the entrance, barely managing to get her fingers around, and pulled her upper body up, just as the hedgehog Super Laboring made its return, and leaped at her dangling legs.

The weight of the creature nearly made her lose grip. She was dragged back down and barely holding on; glaring down at the Super Laboring that lost its grip as well, flinging it across the hall. With little time, the creature rolled back onto its feet and aimed at her for another shot to drag her back down, snapping its jaws around her lower leg, Kaity was still barely hanging on as the creature latched its teeth tightly into her leg, and started to claw her pants with its nails to cause even more agonizing pain.

The pain almost made the chameleon slip, but thankfully it was just one she had to deal with. She quickly kicked the creature's head repeatedly to unlatch it from her bleeding leg, taking more than 5 kicks before it finally released her. She was allowed a chance to slip up into the ventilation, just as the second one slid right underneath her and snapped at her feet. She sighed in relief as she saw that the creatures couldn't jump high enough and closed the vent's cover; laying on the metal in relief, even as her leg continued to bleed.

_In Security Room..._

"Don't think they're gone." Darren growled a little, watching the cameras.

Mince rolled his eyes a little as he jacked in a few bullets into his .44 mag, "At least I know how to shoot."

The silver one then spun around to him with a raised brow, "Yeah, but can you kill them?"

MInce responded with a darker glare, "Kill me if I can't."

"I'd be more than happy to." Darren chuckled a little.

"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!" Mince raised a finger as he handed the gun to Darren, "Did you know that they can't attack me?"

Staring back at him with a blank expression, Darren took hold of the gun and stuck it on a holster, "How? They're wild animals."

"_My_ wild animals." Mince grinned, "They can't kill their own father now can they?"

"Unless they find out they were adopted." the silver one joked.

The brown chameleon ignored his pun, and started out the door, "Well, I've got to go and drag Espio back in, and we have to reapply the IRL before he awakes again, and find a hole in his stomach."

Darren watched his brother chameleon slip out the door and closed it behind him, taking a deep sigh, holding his gun tightly against him as he sat down in front of the cameras, "Fine, but if I get killed by those two things, it's you're own fault."

_ventilation..._

The girl took a moment to scavenge through her bag, sorting through all the viles and liquids she gathered, reading every label to make sure she knows what they do and how to use them. Come to find she grabbed three of the POR's, but all had a different code compared with one another, and only having on coded "69" again, and carefully laid it back into the bag. She then grasped a light blue vile, and read its label:

**POR  
Code number: 23  
POR = Pregnant with Offensive Release  
INSTRUCTIONS:**

**HANDLE WITH CARE: Lightly coat on skin around stomach, allow 1 hour for effect, 50% of death upon release, 50% upon living another day.**

**Pattern: Every hour for 3 days**

**Apply ONLY to hedgehogs! Once applied, have cage ready to catch, weapon ready if to kill. Super Laboring MUST be killed with a gun, aim at the head.**

**Side Effects may Include the following: Unconsciousness, blood discharge in lower area, slight bulging of the stomach, numbness, discoloration of quills, and blood craze.**

**Product copyrighted to Mince Marvelo**

"Well, great." Kaity growled, "That's probably what Sonic ended up with. I just have to hope not to have any come after me."

She then set the POR back into the bag, and grabbed the third copy, a dark red, darker than the first:

**POR  
Code: 66  
POR = Pregnant with Offensive Release  
INSTRUCTIONS:**

**!WARNING!: WILL TAKE INSTANT EFFECT**

**Apply anywhere on the skin, user is best advised to be alone, in a secure area.**

**Females especially must handle with care, multiple Super Laborings will burst ever 20 minutes for 3 hours. Potentially fatal.**

**Once applied, have cage ready to catch, weapon ready if to kill. Super Laboring MUST be killed with a gun, aim at the head.**

**Side Effects may Include the following: Unconsciousness, blood discharge in lower area, slight bulging of the stomach, and numbness.**

**Product copyrighted to Mince Marvelo**

"Geeeeeeeeeeeeze! What is with this guy?" Kaity's eyes widened a little, "Dream the most insane dreams I guess, and make 'em into reality."

Her wound began to twinge after setting the vile back in the bag, poking at her annoyingly and begging for attention, at the same time bringing up the wounds around her stomach and a little of her chest. It only seemed reasonable to at least take a glance at what has become of them, slowly she pulled up her pant leg, feeling the coagulated blood unstick from her leg.

She held her breath as she looked at the wound, seeing her once fuchsia pink skin turn a grimy grey around the bite mark, having a slimier texture around it, and darker veins that faded back into the purpleish chameleon's uninfected part of the leg. Her stomach twisted into a knot, and quickly pulled down the pant leg, looking down at the sleeves hugging her to keep from those wounds from bleeding, debating whether to give herself a more painful reason to wish she didn't come down, or just leave the sleeves around her wounds.

"Okay," Kaity attempted to reassure herself, "Maybe it isn't bad where he stomped on me, so, I move onward."

She sighed, zipping up her beg, and started to crawl through the ventilation, not knowing she was going the opposite way of where Darren resided. The twinging pain also succeeded, although the infection made its nest in the back of her mind.


End file.
